My Washington - April 2019

MY WASHINGTON

MARGARET BRENNAN

Host, “Face The Nation” and Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent, CBS News

INTERVIEW BY VIRGINIA COYNE

Margaret Brennan was named moderator of “Face the Nation” in February of 2018. On September 11 she gave birth to her first child. And earlier this year she conducted a headline-making sit-down interview with President Donald Trump. We asked Brennan about her whirlwind year. >>

YOU’VE BEEN AT THE HELM OF “FACE THE NATION” FOR OVER A YEAR NOW. WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT? The highlight so far has certainly been the interview we did with President Trump on Super Bowl weekend. That was fascinating and exciting. He made a lot of news, including on Iraq and the future of troops in Afghanistan. But I think the most human moment, and the one that surprised many people, was his answer to my question on whether he would allow his own son to play football. A lot of parents can relate to weighing the ups and downs of letting their child play the sport, and I thought it was a very human moment when the President said, “You know, I’m a huge football fan, but probably not.”

YOU ARE CURRENTLY THE ONLY WOMAN ANCHORING A SUNDAY POLITICS SHOW (AND YOU GAVE BIRTH TO A SON SIX MONTHS AGO!) DO YOU FEEL ADDED PRESSURE BECAUSE OF YOUR GENDER? I feel more observed because of that. I’d love for the fact that I’m a woman to just be a characteristic, not a novelty. (Pause) What is the honest answer to that? Does anyone else have a six-month old baby right now and have to manage breastfeeding and cramming for interviews? Probably not. Is that too much information? Maybe. But it’s reality for many of us who are juggling demanding work and motherhood. Are things

different for me as a female host? Yes, they are. But does that change the quality of work I do? No.

SPEAKING OF JUGGLING THINGS, ON TOP OF YOUR HOSTING JOB, YOU ARE ALSO YOUR NETWORK’S CHIEF FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT. HOW DOES THIS ADMINISTRATION’S FOREIGN POLICY DIFFER FROM THOSE YOU’VE COVERED IN THE PAST? Oh, it’s incredibly different. In past administrations there was a unified view and policy being articulated, but that’s not the case in the Trump White House. For instance, as we all saw, the president undermine his own negotiator ahead of talks with North Korea. [Editor’s note: moments after answering this question Brennan laughs and interrupts the interview to share that the President had just tweeted that he was reversing his own Treasury Department’s sanctions on North Korea. “ That underscores the point I was just making about the administration being at cross-purposes,” she explains.]

IN LIGHT OF THE CONTROVERSY SURROUNDING THE COMEDIENNE AT LAST YEAR’S WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ DINNER AND THE FACT THAT THE PRESIDENT HAS NEVER ATTENDED, DO YOU THINK THE DINNER IS STILL RELEVANT? Yes, it was awkward and uncomfortable last year, but to the extent that it is still a funding mechanism for scholarships for journalists, I think it’s important. That’s really what the dinner is supposed to be about. I do think making fun of ourselves, being selfdeprecating, is a good thing. Mocking people, on the other hand, is something that’s always going to make me uneasy, so I hope whatever note is struck this year that we don’t get too caught up in ourselves. I also hate when the media talks about itself, which we do a lot.